The Ragnar Thorisson ’11 Civic Education & Innovation Grant

Apply to fund your civic activity!

The Ragnar Thorisson ’11 Civic Education and Innovation Grant is designed to support collaborative civic and social justice projects primarily in our local Grinnell community.  Students may apply for funding to offset expenses associated with projects that address locally identified civic or social justice challenges.  Students and their local community partners are encouraged, but not required to design projects that not only address the symptoms of their challenge, but also begin to deal with systemic issues and root causes that contribute to the challenge itself. 
 

The maximum grant amount is $1,000. 
 

Application Requirements:
Please note, in order to apply for a Service & Social Innovation Grant, you must:

• Be a current, degree-seeking student at Grinnell College;
• Be a degree seeking student while undertaking their project;
• Have met at least once with a CLS adviser;
• Be in good conduct standing.

In order to apply for this fund students will need the following:

• A community partner and a letter of support from them for the project;
• A brief description of the proposed project;
• A budget for the project; and
• Confirmation that the civic work funded by the grant will be guided by the CLS’s core civic values;

You will be prompted to answer the following essay questions:

1. Describe the civic or social justice need that the you wish to address, the context that makes the need important, and why addressing this issue is important to you.  Maximum 2000 characters.
2. Describe how your project aligns or intersects with an initiative that is addressing systemic or root causes of the issue.  Maximum 2000 characters. 
3. Describe what metrics you will use to assess the potential impact of your project as it relates to the need noted in question #1 above.  Maximum 1000 characters. 

Upon successful application for funding recipients will need to: 

• Keep a detailed (itemized) expense report and return all original receipts to the CLS in order to be reimbursed. (Please contact Susan Sanning or Ryan Solomon if this will present financial challenges for you.)
• Throughout the duration of the project write a quarterly reflection essay about their experience and the impact of their work.  (Excerpts of these essays may be used in publications about civic engagement at Grinnell.)